[SDCC 2015] “Halo 5: Guardians” Hands On

This year, the Xbox One will finally see the release of a proper Halo title for the console with Halo 5: Guardians. San Diego Comic Con offered us the opportunity to get our hands on a new multiplayer mode: Warzone.

Warzone supports up to 24 players within a match that features AI Prometheans, who are enemies for both teams. Matches started off with a quick requirement to kill the first set of Prometheans, which was a simple enough task. From there, Warzone showed off some of the more modern features of Halo 5 multiplayer. It’s similar to a Slayer mode but the more kills or assists you pile up, the more points you earn to spend on weapon or vehicle upgrades. You can spend points during respawn rest periods or at REQ stations. You’ll have to have continued success to earn the right to get bigger time weapons like rocket launchers or vehicles like Warthogs or Mantises.

The point acquirement system was actually fair. In the set of matches I played through, I played decently and was still able to get through to about level 5 upgrades, which got me rocket launcher type weapons. These were weapons to use in a fair-sized map against the other team, but also against more boss types like a pair of Hunters or Elite Generals. In my previous Halo experiences, I would at times go a fair amount amount of the match simply looking for enemies. This wasn’t exactly the case for Warzone, so the pace was kept at a healthly level.

Warzone will require, at least in this mode, players to capture various enemy zones to amass enough points at the end of the round for a win. Defeating boss types, such as the Hunters, will score you upwards of 200 points and help you gain massive ground. My team was getting destroyed for a period of time until we took down a pair of Hunters that got us right back into the match. Ultimately we lost, but we made it much closer than it seemed we would. Destroying the core element of the opposing team’s base will earn an instant win, but neither side accomplished that.

In all, Warzone was actually quite enjoyable, perhaps even more so in one passthrough than what I experienced in the beta. Personally, I’m a fan of straight deathmatches, so I typically stick with Slayer within Halo. This, though, offered a nice balance of fast, Slayer-like gameplay with that of Territories. It strikes a nice balance with a good-sized demo map.

This year, the Xbox One will finally see the release of a proper Halo title for the console with Halo 5: Guardians. San Diego Comic Con offered us the opportunity to get our hands on a new multiplayer mode: Warzone. Warzone supports up to 24 players within a match that features AI Prometheans, who are enemies for both teams. Matches started off with a quick requirement to kill the first set of Prometheans, which was a simple enough task. From […]

This year, the Xbox One will finally see the release of a proper Halo title for the console with Halo 5: Guardians. San Diego Comic Con offered us the opportunity to get our hands on a new multiplayer mode: Warzone.

Warzone supports up to 24 players within a match that features AI Prometheans, who are enemies for both teams. Matches started off with a quick requirement to kill the first set of Prometheans, which was a simple enough task. From there, Warzone showed off some of the more modern features of Halo 5 multiplayer. It’s similar to a Slayer mode but the more kills or assists you pile up, the more points you earn to spend on weapon or vehicle upgrades. You can spend points during respawn rest periods or at REQ stations. You’ll have to have continued success to earn the right to get bigger time weapons like rocket launchers or vehicles like Warthogs or Mantises.

The point acquirement system was actually fair. In the set of matches I played through, I played decently and was still able to get through to about level 5 upgrades, which got me rocket launcher type weapons. These were weapons to use in a fair-sized map against the other team, but also against more boss types like a pair of Hunters or Elite Generals. In my previous Halo experiences, I would at times go a fair amount amount of the match simply looking for enemies. This wasn’t exactly the case for Warzone, so the pace was kept at a healthly level.

Warzone will require, at least in this mode, players to capture various enemy zones to amass enough points at the end of the round for a win. Defeating boss types, such as the Hunters, will score you upwards of 200 points and help you gain massive ground. My team was getting destroyed for a period of time until we took down a pair of Hunters that got us right back into the match. Ultimately we lost, but we made it much closer than it seemed we would. Destroying the core element of the opposing team’s base will earn an instant win, but neither side accomplished that.

In all, Warzone was actually quite enjoyable, perhaps even more so in one passthrough than what I experienced in the beta. Personally, I’m a fan of straight deathmatches, so I typically stick with Slayer within Halo. This, though, offered a nice balance of fast, Slayer-like gameplay with that of Territories. It strikes a nice balance with a good-sized demo map.